


Epitaph for Future Reference

by chickwen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reincarnation, Rivals to Lovers, Slice of Life, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26762767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chickwen/pseuds/chickwen
Summary: inexplicably, tooru always knew but hadn't always believed-reincarnation soulmate au where you only remember your past lives the first time you kiss your soulmate
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio & Oikawa Tooru, Kageyama Tobio/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 24
Kudos: 126





	1. Dinner at 00:00 am (prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> another oikage fic ?? who would have guessed ???

The smell of steaming rice wafted through the air and four bowls sat on the table. Two of miso soup and two of tsukemono. The fish and meat remained absent; both men were too tired to make anything more than the absolute basics. Chopsticks sat on their holders expectantly, waiting to be used; condensation from two cups of water slowly seeped over the table.

The kitchen and dining room light fought off the dark of the night alongside the moon that spilled itself over their floor in graceful disarray. Saitou Yuki played softly from the kitchen where their speaker resided, Tooru put on the playlist almost as soon as he got his shoes off so they could relax.

Tooru played with Tobio’s hair absently. He looked down where Tobio’s eyes drooped, lashes fluttering against his shirt. Tobio tightened his arms around Tooru’s waist and let out a soft breath.

To think that twenty years ago he wanted nothing to do with the man cuddling him on his couch.

Tobio shifted his head and looked up at Tooru. Deep bags were under his eyes from the long day of traveling and his skin looked more oily than usual. His dark, elegant brows twisted together and Tooru absently brought his other hand to rub the crease out of his face.

“What are you thinking about?” Tooru asked quietly.

“What you’re thinking about,” Tobio replied, voice barely above a soft rumble.

Tooru moved so that both hands twisted and carded through soft black hair. Tobio’s eyes fell shut for a moment and his face slowly started to relax into a relaxed state. By the time Kadomatsu Toshiki started singing, Tobio’s breaths evened and his eyes stayed closed. Tooru smiled softly and dropped his head back to look at the clock.

00:17 am

Tooru wanted to go to sleep but the rice—

A drawn-out beeping noise cut through the soft music and silence.

He blinked and looked at the rice cooker. Two zeroes stared back at him in red.

Tooru sighed and shifted carefully to let Tobio sleep for a couple more minutes— not that Tobio wasn’t already dead to the world. He quietly slid his socked feet over the hardwood and then cool tile. He opened the rice cooker and then grabbed the rice paddle, wetting it briefly. He fluffed the rice and then closed the lid, dropping the paddle into a spare measuring cup full of water they set out earlier.

He went to the bedroom and changed into less restrictive clothing, set out some for Tobio.

Returning to the kitchen he put rice into two bowls and set them on the table. He would try to fry some fish but the last time it ended up stuck to the pan and burnt beyond enjoyment. When Tobio asked him to stay away from the stove he agreed.

“Tobio, dinner’s ready,” he said while shaking the man into consciousness.

“Mmh?” Tobio blinked awake and yawned. He sat up on the couch and tiredly looked at Tooru, “What?”

“Dinner’s ready,” Tooru repeated and gestured to the table.

He watched Tobio’s eyes go in and out of focus a few times before nodding and standing up to shuffle over to the table.

They ate in relative silence, city pop playing just loud enough to fill the night air.

Tooru watched Tobio and how he tiredly went from rice to soup to vegetables and then soup to vegetables to rice.

“Do you think we’ll be together in our next life?” Tooru asked suddenly.

Tobio looked up and shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“We almost didn’t this time,” Tooru stared down at the piece of tofu sinking into his murky soup. “We didn’t last time either.”

Tobio— never one to fret over his words— did a round of rice, vegetables, soup and then offered his opinion. “I think that I’m always going to love you and that makes me happy. Even if we don't end up together next time, I have you now. So, I don’t think I have to worry.”

Tooru stopped and stared. Tobio dipped his head and raised an eyebrow, “What?”

He kept his lips together to damper his grin at first before a quiet laugh eased out of his lungs, “Nothing.”

They finished eating and getting ready for bed. Barely forty minutes later they lay in bed facing each other. Tobio grabbed Tooru’s hand and pulled so that it pressed against the soft skin of his lips. No sooner than he settled, Tobio fell asleep and Tooru smiled at his partner's relaxed face. The blankets pulled up to under his chin and his overgrown hair— slightly thinner than several years before— draped across his face like a lazy curtain. Tooru pushed it back behind his ear and then closed his eyes.

_“I wonder what it’ll be like the next time I fall in love with you.”_


	2. 君の同じ顔 (your same face)

_A smile like a bloody waning moon. Limp hard body rested against his chest and weeping wounds blossomed over their clothes in tragic funeral flower fashion. He breathed with bands around his lungs. Every muscle in his body hurt and his heart fell apart in his chest. Each bit fluttering down into his stomach like rotting chrysanthemum petals.  
_

_His lips, tongue, and teeth worked with his vocal cords to create a word— name possibly. Something that a blank silence blanketed and swallowed whole. Tears and a vignette creeped over and consumed his vision until all discernibility dappled into black._

—

Tooru jolted awake and he vacuumed in a breath. His heart, whole again, threw blood against his eardrums in relentless rhythm. His eyes searched for blood and corpse. Only the image of a ceiling with weak glow stars and stripes of dancing sunlight greeted him.

He took a moment to calm his breathing and sat up slowly. His arm muscles jumped under his skin and his fingers trembled. Adrenaline still coursing ate at his sense of weight, leaving only the itch of unbearable lightness and hunger for more mass in his long limbs.

Air skittered out of his lungs and he slumped forward to revel in the weight of his body just as his alarm clock started to croon at him.

Tooru blinked one, four, five times. He couldn’t even remember the dream.

Brushed his teeth, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth again, got dressed, walked down the street to meet Iwaizumi. The sakura trees cried pretty pink tears over them while the sun chatted joyfully with the clouds. Tooru’s easy spring routine. Almost lazy with ease, like floating down a river on his back. Morning lilted by until:

“What’s with you?”

Tooru jolted and smiled at Iwaizumi, “Nothing.”

The hard stare showed Iwaizumi didn’t believe him. He wrinkled his nose and flicked Tooru’s forehead, “You’re full of shit. You always get jumpy when something happens. Nervous about school or something?”

That pulled a long, heavy sigh out of Tooru’s lungs by a drawstring. He shrugged, “No, it’s not that… I don’t know. Just feel… I had a dream last night and I guess it freaked me out, though I can’t remember it at all.” He leaned back on his heels and stared at the slow waltzing leaves. “I guess it’s not really important, it just… feels like it is.”

“Well… tell me if you remember,” Iwaizumi said.

Tooru grinned and leaned over, “Awh, you do care!”

A sharp tsk cut through, “Only ‘cause you can’t take care of yourself. You’d die without me.”

He laughed bright as the sunlight peeking through the branches, “Nah. I would do just fine without a second mom.” A small bout of silence lapped over them. The following look that Iwaizumi gave him made him yelp and take off running, feet splashing in puddles of petals.

“Sorry! You know I didn’t mean it!”

“You asshole stop running and say it to my face!” Iwaizumi called as he sprinted down the rest of the street.

Tooru laughed loud and bright the rest of their way to school.

The first day back felt like it always did. New teachers, old friends, same routine, different lottery.

The first years had the same anxieties as him on his first day, skittering about their schools and tugging at the plastic lining their collars or fiddling to keep their skirts three centimeters above the knee. Second years scouted around for their friends, quickly trying to find and establish a good place to sit that the third years hadn’t yet taken.

And then him.

Tooru promised to meet Iwaizumi under the large tree in the courtyard where they and their friends sat since first year. On his way through the school, he detoured in the direction of the vending machine. He dug through his coin pouch and selected the right amount of money for a juice box and lifted his head again.

A boy stood in front of the machine. Small, decidedly a first year. His hair fell in an awfully unflattering way and his uniform looked boxy around his shoulders. He didn’t move at all and for a moment Tooru wondered if the boy fell asleep.

“Uh, are you okay?” he asked, shifting his weight across his feet.

The boy straightened like a startled cat, back snapping so straight it seemed like it hurt. He whipped around and Tooru felt a violent churn of emotions in his stomach. Face soft and round with a lot of baby fat hanging onto his cheeks. Eyes too big in his head and nose small and button like.

_He has the same face._

Tooru blinked and furrowed his brows with the fleeting thought. His previous gut reaction washed away so quickly he could hardly remember what he felt. It all dissipated into a very distant, arbitrary feeling that sunk under the depths under a prevailing sense of curious recognition. A feeling somewhere between deja vu and a memory he couldn’t quite remember or place. The sort of feeling when Tooru saw a random cartoon character he swore he knew even if he lost their name.

Tooru never saw him before but a strange, strange sense of familiarity settled into his very soul.

“Ah, uhm, sorry,” the boy said. His eyebrows sunk together and his cheeks puffed with a childish pout, “I can’t decide what drink I want.”

“Oh,” Tooru voiced absently before he smiled the same way he always did. “Were you already thinking of a choice?”

He nodded, face much too serious for a kid no older than twelve, “The milk or the yogurt. They’re the same price and I like them both so…”

A breathy laugh bled through Tooru’s lips, “That’s a pretty hard choice. I know how to solve that though.” He stepped closer to the vending machine, “See how they’re right next to each other? Just do this.” He lifted two fingers and stabbed the buttons at the same time, “There, now the machine decides for you.”

The boy watched in wonder as a milk carton dropped down into the grab box. He then turned his glimmering, starry gaze to Tooru before bowing deeply, “Thank you!”

“No problem,” Tooru murmured. His fingertips buzzed with being on the receiving end of such an earnestly awe-inspired expression. With a removed curiosity, he watched the boy snatch his milk box and start off down the hall.

Turning back to the vending machine, Tooru deliberated for a moment and took out a few extra coins. He pressed the button and grabbed the small carton, wondering how a person he never met before could feel as if they met lifetimes ago.

“Milk?” Iwaizumi asked when Tooru walked up to the tree, poking his straw through the foil. “Was the machine already out of apple juice?”

“No,” he shrugged. Pushing off a stray leaf and a stick from the old wood, he sat down. “Just felt like drinking milk instead.”

“You don’t like drinking milk.”

He shrugged again and put his chin in his hand, “It’s not that bad.”

Iwaizumi gave him a look again and scoffed, “You’re being weirder than usual today.”

“Iwa-chan is just being judgmental.”

“Shut up already.”

“Nah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gakuran have a white plastic insert inside the collar so that boys don't have to worry as much about starching it or wearing two undershirts  
> *"君の同じ顔" (kimi no on'naji gao) means "your same face". it's something i once heard my great-grandma say when looking at old pictures of her sister (naturally with more familiarity). it stuck with me for some reason or another and i thought i would use it for this.  
> -  
> so it's been a while (*￣▽￣v)  
> i'm so sorry but i just really haven't felt motivated for this and opus but i hope to push through the block !  
> i also wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who commented on the prologue !! i didn't respond to everyone because i was feeling a bit overwhelmed with non-ao3 related things but i really did appreciate it !

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading ! more to come... soon-ish ?
> 
> you can come find me on twitter [@umchickwen](twitter.com/umchickwen)


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